


Sundown

by ideallyqualia



Series: Rare Pairs [73]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, Confessions, M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 14:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9275978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: Ushijima likes Goshiki and spending time with Goshiki.





	

**Author's Note:**

> happy late ushigoshi day

Ushijima moved his pencil between his fingers. Graduation was approaching. There wasn't much left to do for school aside from turning in the last of the homework, study, and take final exams. Anything related to volleyball was either in the past or the future, and he spent most of his time in the past few weeks running and exercising, with occasional spiking practice from Semi's tosses.

After class, Goshiki appeared in front of his classroom door. He milled outside along the wall and fidgeted. Students left ahead of Ushijima and passed, and Goshiki shrunk to avoid bumping into them.

Ushijima walked to him. "Why are you here?"

Goshiki jolted and swiveled his head up. "Here?! I'm here!"

"Why?"

Goshiki glanced around Ushijima, avoiding his eyes but in a way that felt like a natural consequence of fidgeting instead of guilt or something suspicious. Ushijima decided he didn't need to know. It might compel Goshiki to leave.

"I'm heading home," Ushijima said. "Afterward, I'm going to jog, shower, and then have dinner. Do you want to join me?"

"Join you what?"

"In all of it. You don't have practice, do you?"

"Nope!" Goshiki answered right away.

"Let's go get ready, then. I'll meet you outside the dorm building in ten minutes." Ushijima stepped to leave.

Goshiki didn't move, and Ushijima stopped and waited patiently for him to follow. His attention was drawn to Goshiki's face, gauging the open surprise of his eyes and the tip of his nose. Ushijima suspected that every time he stared into someone's face, they thought he was trying to intimidate them or observe them out of skepticism, but he actually wanted to know what they thought. In Goshiki's case, it involved that and staring for the sake of staring. Appreciating Goshiki's face. He had a pleasant face.

"O-oh okay, let's go!" Goshiki grabbed Ushijima's wrist and urged him to hurry. Ushijima let himself be dragged until the end of the hallway.

Ushijima slipped out of his grip to open the door for Goshiki to exit first. He gravitated back to Goshiki's side.

They walked in silence. Goshiki fiddled his fingers and linked and unlinked them together, facing ahead without turning or saying anything. Ushijima watched his hands.

Before they went separate ways to their rooms, Goshiki spoke. "How long are you going to jog?"

"An hour."

"Okay!" Goshiki nodded and ran. Ushijima didn't have the time to warn him not to waste his energy in a premature run.

Ushijima finished first and stood outside. He crossed his arms, passing the time by admiring the grass under his feet.

Goshiki burst out of the door. "I'm ready!"

"Good. Come with me." Ushijima led them to a patch of grass away from the building, and they stretched.

Goshiki wobbled to balance on one leg. He made noises in almost every stretch, complaining when he couldn't twist his waist far enough to crack, groaning at the burn in his calves when he reached for his feet, and sighing when he extended his arms to the sky. Ushijima didn't respond to him.

Goshiki never had impressive stamina for someone on Shiratorizawa's main team, but he _did_ for a first year. It was a reason to start him on the team in the first place. He upheld his reputation and jogged beside Ushijima for half an hour, keeping up with him without talking. Ushijima jogged slower than usual, but he didn't want to tell Goshiki.

After a while, Goshiki started huffing and breathing hard. His steps became so sloppily that Ushijima stopped.

"You're tired."

"I can keep going!" As Goshiki tried to walk again, his feet fell, almost like stomps. He slouched and leaned against Ushijima.

Ushijima shifted from having Goshiki's head rest against the side of his arm. He wasn't drained from jogging, but his arm muscles were warm and limber from the stretches and exercise, and Goshiki's weight entrusted to him made them tingle, almost with soreness.

"We should head back," Ushijima said.

"But we didn't jog for that long!"

"You can barely jog." Ushijima gently pushed him away by his shoulders. "Any further, and I'd have to carry you."

Goshiki squirmed. "No! No, you don't, I'd, you. I'll walk back on my own."

Ushijima reoriented him to turn toward the way they came. "We're going back."

Goshiki grumbled wordlessly and obeyed. They walked together, Goshiki still breathing hard and filling the silence, and Ushijima calm and unaffected beside him. Goshiki bowed his head in recovery.

A trash can stood ahead, and Ushijima steered Goshiki away with a hand on his back. He didn't speak or warn Goshiki until they passed it.

"You're not paying attention to your surroundings," Ushijima said.

"I _am_."

Ushijima didn't remove his hand. Goshiki stood taller, and Ushijima readjusted his hand and encouraged him with a nudging force to keep him from stopping or slouching again.

When they reached the dorm building, Goshiki slumped into instability and crumpled. Ushijima held Goshiki up by squeezing his hands on the sides of Goshiki's shoulders.

"Are you alright?" Ushijima asked.

Goshiki mumbled limply.

Ushijima guided Goshiki to his room on almost none of Goshiki's own strength. Ushijima opened the door, and Goshiki collapsed on the bed.

Ushijima hovered in the doorway. "We'll eat some other time, then." He closed the door as softly as possible and left.

 

* * *

 

Ushijima reconsidered. He imagined Goshiki lying face-first on the bed for the rest of the day into the night, never getting up for food, and Ushijima's chest filled with a pang of sympathy. He went into the kitchen and cooked extra food alongside his dinner.

Ushijima didn't decorate food that often. Most of the time he did it as a touch on a meal he packaged for a friend to give to them as a gift, or to cheer them up, but this -- food was necessary. Goshiki might not even notice the ornamented details if Ushijima chose to do them.

He shaped balls of rice and decorated them with small bird faces, and cut out hearts and flowers from vegetables and placed them on a bed of leafy greens. He packed it into a bento and headed to Goshiki's room.

"Goshiki?" Ushijima asked as he opened the door carefully, turning his head and casting his voice around the room. "I brought you something."

Goshiki leaned from his chair. "Ushijima-san! What...?"

Ushijima handed him the dinner. "Earlier you weren't in any state to get your own food."

Goshiki wordlessly watched and opened out his hands to let it drop onto them.

"Enjoy your dinner." Ushijima bowed out.

 

* * *

 

Over the next few days, Goshiki continued to approach Ushijima the same way he did the first time Ushijima found him outside his classroom: flustered, vague, unable to explain why he came. Ushijima still didn't ask. He quietly accepted it and liked it.

Goshiki ran up to Ushijima and slipped into his walking pace without a word. Ushijima was walking to the library by himself, and he didn't react to Goshiki joining him at his side.

"Ushijima-senpai," Goshiki started. He had to struggle to keep a stammer out of his voice. "Ushijima, I really..."

Ushijima reached to open the door to the library, but Goshiki grabbed him and pulled him aside, all the way around the corner.

Goshiki leaned on his toes and gripped his shoulders. "Ushijima, I really like you!"

"Oh. Thank you for telling me, I appreciate it." Ushijima acknowledged him with a nod.

"No I don't mean it like that!" Goshiki's hands tightened on him. "I mean it. Romantically I mean. I romantically like you!"

Ushijima stared into him. "You do?" The force of Goshiki's grasp made him stoop a little lower, closer to Goshiki's eye level.

"Yeah! Yeah..." Goshiki stammered again. He averted his eyes.

"Goshiki?"

Goshiki dipped his head down to hide, leaning from his hands on Ushijima's shoulders.

Ushijima's face filled with a wave of rolling heat. He stirred in warmth for a moment. "I like you romantically too." Tightening his mouth pinched off the end of his sentence, and he considered in silence.

Goshiki stammered again.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


End file.
